AF267B and Alzheimer Disease

A new drug that enhances the activity of a key brain cell receptor involved in Alzheimer's disease (AD) reverses learning and memory deficits in mice engineered to have pathological hallmarks of the disease. What's more, the drug, called AF267B, reduces both of the pathologies--the brain-clogging buildup of protein "amyloid plaque" outside brain cells and the protein "neurofibrillary tangles" inside the cells.

In an article in the March 2, 2006, issue of Neuron, Dr. Frank LaFerla of the University of California, Irvine and his colleagues reported the first in vivo studies of the drug's effects. AF267B was developed by coauthor Abraham Fisher to activate particular receptors for the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. These specific receptors, called M1 receptors, are abundant in areas of the brain--the cortex and hippocampus--known to develop severe deposits of plaques and tangles in AD patients. Dysfunction in acetylcholine receptors has been shown to be characteristic of early stages of AD.